


A New life

by SuccubustyKisses



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Fantasy AU, M/M, Minotaur - Freeform, Multi, Vampires, Werelions, Werewolves, Witches, faerie - Freeform, lots of mythicals
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-01
Updated: 2018-02-09
Packaged: 2019-01-27 15:45:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12585212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuccubustyKisses/pseuds/SuccubustyKisses
Summary: After coming into a large sum of money Keith moves to the country to start a new life away from the city. Unfortunately his new life wasn't anything like he'd imagined.





	1. Enjoying Nature

The air was crisp, just cold enough to numb his nose and cheeks and burn in his lungs as he took a deep breath. There was no smoke in the air, no large buildings blocking the views of the trees, no concrete between his shoes and the ground below. This is why he moved. This is what he wanted. Keith thanked his mother, even if he doesn’t remember anything about her, for leaving him a hefty sum of inheritance when she passed away. Thanks to her death and secret will leaving everything to her apparently ALSO secret child Keith was set for life. He was able to quit his retail job he hated and leave the city to escape to the old house he found deep in the wooded area of the country.

The house was falling apart, sure, but Keith had plenty of money to fix it up and all the time in the world to do it. The only thing the previous owners had told him after dropping the key in his hand was a cryptic message about wolves in the night. But Keith quickly shrugged off their warnings of yellow eyes in the dark saying he’d be fine, he’ll just keep a knife with him, just in case.

Taking another long slow breath he grinned, tapping his toes on the creaky boards of his porch he tucked his keys into his pocket next to the butterfly knife he found in one of the few boxes of stuff he got from his mother’s apartment. With a smile he started off at a steady jog, following the worn dirt path from his porch steps down the yard and into the road behind. It was still to early for any sign of sunrise but Keith could hear birds stirring awake and singing to the new day.

He followed the road, his house disappearing in the fog of the early morning. After about a half hour he stopped to take a drink from his water bottle. His eyes taking in the trees around him. A flash of light in the dark caused him to blink, head tilting as he walked closer to the tree line. Eyes squinting to try to find the light, instead finding a pink flower lined path into the thick trees. Looking around he shrugged and started walking down the path following the trail of pink along the brush of the otherwise colorless dark forest.

The flowers seemed to move of their own accord separate from the wind which rustled the dry autumn leaves around him as he followed them. The further he walked into the trees the less noise he heard other than his own footsteps on dry leaves. His ears strain to pick up any noise around him as his eyes scan his surroundings. “Theres someone here.” A male whisper echoes through the dark causing Keith to jerk to look around him, eyes wide searching for movement.

“Why is there a human here?” A female voice this time, accented.

“It looks like he followed your flowers, princess.” The first voice again, from above. Keith pulled his knife out, gripping it, still closed, tightly in his fist.

“Well get him out of here before its too late.” The female voice.

“No can do Princess.” The first voice comes from directly above Keith looks up seeing a flash of blue through the orange leaves. “Its already too late.”

A growl, deep and loud comes from the trees causing Keith to jerk his head from the trees to stare wide eyed into the dark brush. He flips open his knife and slowly backs up towards the path he followed to get there, confused when he finds the pink flowers glowing in a circle around him, but the path gone, trees standing tall around him. “We need backup. Who is this, all the villagers know better than to go out at night.”

“Princess no one calls them villagers anymore, your age is showing.” The growls drew closer, flashes of yellow moving around the circle, creeping closer, obviously watching him. Keith reached the edge of the flower circle, breath coming out in adrenaline spiked pants as the eyes drew closer, larger, higher in the dark than any wolf he’d ever seen.“Any word on that backup princess?”

“Green team says they’ve got their hands full with a pack of five, black team isn’t answering, and yellow team is too far away but they’re trying to make it here anyway.” Large forms parted from the shadows, four of them, fur standing on end and teeth bared, foam dripping from sharp teeth. The two on the edges were about twice the size of any wolf Keith had ever seen in a zoo, one of the two in the center was taller, but lankier, and the last was huge, at least the size of a bear, fur puffing out around it in a way that made it look impossibly bigger. “Looks like we’re on our own.”

“If we keep the idiot human alive to we get bragging rights?” The blue glow was in the tree again illuminating a human looking face with a cheezy grin plastered on it. A streak of pink light flashes to Keith’s right distracting one of the smaller wolves. A shower of pink trickling down on its dark fur like glitter.

“Pay more attention to the galra instead of the human.” The wolf now sprinkled in pink yelps out in pain as it falls to the ground, pink glow surrounding it and lifting it into the air sending it flying into a large tree with a crack. At the same time a flash of blue shot down from the tree to Keith’s left cracking into the smaller wolf on the left with a cry it crumpled to the ground twitching.

The two remaining wolves lunged, claws leaving furrows in the ground as they moved forward. Pink shot across their legs causing the more lean wolf to stumble to the ground quickly being hit by a ball of blue and crying out, paws twitching. The large one deftly avoids both the streaks of pink and the balls of blue shooting down from the trees. Keith crouches down, holding his knife out and ready. The wolf jumps into the air, mouth wide open ready to rip into his flesh. Keith dives to the side dragging his knife across its left paw.

It slams into the tree as Keith rolls away, sending splinters of wood flying through the air. Keith pushes himself to his feet backing up as the giant wolf rights itself, shaking its head as it dives out of the way of another ball of blue. With an angered growl it pushes itself forward, blood splattering the ground from the cut on its leg, seeming unnoticed as it rushes at Keith again. A flash of pink smacks into its face causing it to stop for only a second, its teeth quickly clamping down on the small figure and tossing it aside to glow dull in the flowers around them.

A curse sounds from above but Keith ignores it, holding his bloody knife tight in his fist as he watches the injured wolf move closer. His foot bumps into the body of one of the other wolves causing him to stumble back over its body, feeling its breathing on his legs as he lands flat on his back. He sees a flash of blue fly over his head followed by the smell of burning fur. Keith pushes himself up detangling his legs from the wolf under him, seeming restrained by vines of glowing pink flowers, just before its teeth latch on to his ankle.

A flash of blue cracks into the wolf’s head as it tries to flip over causing its yellow eyes to widen then fall closed, body going limp. Keith lets out a breath pushing himself up into standing. He got himself standing just in time to be slammed into at a force that sent the air from his lungs as his back skidded along the ground claws pressing into his chest. Keith cried out as he felt the sharp tips pierce easily into his flesh, hot breath smelling of rotted flesh panting in his face as he stared wide eyed up into the solid yellow of the bear sized wolf’s eyes.

Keith’s hand flailed searching for his knife as a ball of blue collided with the creatures back sending flames along it’s fur, but seemingly going unnoticed as it seemed to grin, thick foam dripping down from its open maw onto Keith’s cheek. Keith’s fingers wrapped around the metal of his knife just as the wolf’s head moved down, his arm jerking up as its teeth latched onto his shoulder, only missing his neck thanks to his quick moving ignoring the scrape of claws down his chest as he buried his knife into the left eye of the wolf sending a thick mass of blood splattering on Keith’s face blurring his own vision.

The teeth on his shoulder clamped down harder causing Keith to scream out in pain, a pulse of warmth filling his veins as white spots start to flutter in his vision like snow. Keith groaned, he was going to die. He just got his life together and he was already dying, ripped apart in the woods by an unnatural wolf while two people who call him an idiot human stay hidden in the shadows. His eyes start drifting closed, his hand dropping to the dirt, knife bouncing off into the brush. Just as his eyes close completely a deafening roar causes him to jerk, pulling at the teeth in his flesh, eyes flying open just in time to see another large figure slam into the one on top of him, the two of them rolling off out of his vision.

Growls and cracks of trees sound from the scuffle he can’t see as Keith fights to stay awake, feeling himself losing the fight as blue fills his vision. “Hey, human! Stay awake. I gotta get you out of here where’s your car?” Hot hands press into his cheeks almost burning on his too cold flesh.

“No car.”

“You don’t have a car? How the quiznak did you get here?” The blue glow shifted to his shoulder and the boy controlling it cursed again as his hand hovered over it.

“Was jogging.”

“In the dark? You really are stupid.” The growls stopped with another loud roar. Keith tries to shrug but his body doesn’t seem to listen to him. “Where’d you come from?”

“Old house down the street. The one by itself.” A large mass of black fur moves up behind the glowing blue light, eyes glinting as it looks down at him, its jaws dripping blood. A lion, there Keith lay, dying from a bear sized wolf attack, being watched by a boy he couldn’t see controlling a blue flame and a huge black lion. The lion shook its head, its mane splattering blood on Keith and the boy over him before it laid on the ground, a growl echoing up from its body.

“Thanks Black.” The boy says with affection as his hands wrap around Keith’s wrists pulling them up to wrap around his neck. “Can you hold on so I can lift you onto black?”

Keith scoffed, fingers clinging to each other as best as he can as the boy pushes a hand under his knees and another around his back lifting him up with ease. It was awkward, but Keith was so far gone into shock that he didn’t feel any pain as the boy settled him onto the lion’s back. The lion shifted and Keith started to slip off the side causing another curse and the hands returning to his back to pull him back on. “I need you to hold on man.”

“Hands aren’t listening.” The flutter of white was back in his vision as Keith’s head slipped into the soft mane of the lion under him.

“Quiznak. Black, he’s not going to make it if we go slow, but he’s also going to fall if I let go.” The lion growed under Keith, sending vibrations through his body. “You can’t be serious. Are you sure you can carry us both? Maybe Allura ca-“ another growl. “Okay okay. I’m coming!” Warmth covers his back, hands moving into his vision. Breath puffed hot on the back of his neck as Keith closed his eyes and felt the movement of muscles under him. Keith didn’t even try to open his eyes, letting himself drift off into oblivion with soft fur and hard muscles under him, and warm heat at his back. 


	2. Infection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Why does it feel like acid is running through my veins?”
> 
> “Well that’s pretty much whats happening.” The androgynous one, Pidge. Keith resists moving to look at them, keeping his eyes on the worried blue ones in front of him. “You were infected by the Galra’s bite and your body is using all it has to fight off the infection, but without completely removing it, it’s a losing battle. You’re probably going to die. Even if we try to get it out.”

“-an’t get the infection out.” A male voice.

“Are you sure he even got infected? Maybe its just a normal human infection?” Another male, vaguely familiar. 

“I can smell it from here Lance. And I’m in my human form.” A third male. 

“We just need to get him some blood to replace the stuff we take.” Okay… Keith can’t honestly tell if that one is male or female. 

“You make it sound so easy. Let me just use my powers to magic us up some healthy human blood, no big deal.” The second one, Lance. 

“Are you fu-“

“Language Pidge.” The third one. 

“I’m sorry Shiro but he can’t really be that dumb. Lance I know you’re not that dumb. What do you think Matt and I live off of? Fillet Mignon?” The androgynous one. 

“Hey, you guys know he’s awake right?” The first voice again. Keith’s breathing stops when he realizes they’re talking about him. He peeks an eye open glancing around the dark room, taking in the shadows of figures around him. 

A light turns on causing him to flinch, pain shooting through his veins as his body moves causing him to cry out. A loud thud followed by the stomping of feet rushing over. “Hey man, you can’t move around like that.” 

“I didn’t even move.” Keith opened his eyes turning his head, gritting his teeth to the pain so he can glare into the blue eyes next to his. The man, Keith pieces together is Lance by his voice, is obviously tall, settling comfortably cross legged on the floor by the couch. His brown hair fell just above his eyes, and his skin was a tan that Keith guessed didn’t come from the sun. “Why does it feel like acid is running through my veins?”

“Well that’s pretty much whats happening.” The androgynous one, Pidge. Keith resists moving to look at them, keeping his eyes on the worried blue ones in front of him. “You were infected by the Galra’s bite and your body is using all it has to fight off the infection, but without completely removing it, it’s a losing battle. You’re probably going to die. Even if we try to get it out.” 

“Pidge!” The third voice again, Shiro. “How many times do I have to tell you. You can’t just tell people things like that and expect a good response.”

“I’m just telling the truth, Shiro. How many people have we tried to save from the infection and failed?” Pidge sounded indignant, annoyed. “I don’t tell lies.”

“I was saved.” Shiro countered back.

“Were you? Because I don’t seem to remember humans being able to change into giant fluffy lions.” 

“Pidge, Shiro just means that he’s not crazed and bloodthirsty like the Galra.” That first male voice again. The only one without a name. At this point Keith could see the awkward look crossing Lance’s face as he chewed on his lower lip. 

“Well then why don’t you just work another miracle then, Matt. Go ahead. Save this nameless idiot like you did Shiro.” Pidge’s voice was low, angry. “Or do you not want to almost die for a complete fucking stranger who is too stupid to stay out of the woods!” 

“I’m laying right here, you know.” Keith grumbles cutting them off. “I’d appreciate if you stopped calling me a stupid human. My name is Keith. And I would personally like to have a voice on if I die or not.” 

A pale hand moved into his vision shoving Lance aside, a small body seating itself in his place. They had brown hair, long and thick in a braid draped over one shoulder and honey brown eyes behind coke bottle glasses. “Hello Keith.” The voice was Pidge’s. They smiled a smug, superior smirk. “You want a choice in how this gets treated, that’s fine lets talk shop.” 

“Pidge, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” 

“I agree with Matt, I think its best to not give all the details.” Shiro’s voice was a lot closer, probably just out of view without Keith moving his head. 

“Oh no Shiro. We’ve done this too damn many times without even getting to talk to the people. This one is obviously stubborn considering I can see him fighting the urge to move just so he can avoid pain. Which is smart cuz you’ll probably pass out from it. Though really I’m impressed you’re even awake.” Pidge is grinning now, flashing pearly white teeth with much too sharp looking canines. “So, Keith. Do you wanna talk about what your options are?”

“I’m hoping some of them include my living. And after the whole not dying thing is over I really would like to know who and what you people are and why all of you are in my house.” Keith tries to give a challenging look but its hard to do without looking. 

“It’s a very nice house, not many items though. Do you have another moving truck coming soon? Perhaps with your family?” A new female voice, coming from the doorway. 

“Everything I own is here, and I live alone.” Keith mutters. 

“Oh! Such a big house for only one person.” The voice sounds a mixture of confusion and awe. The smell of food reaches Keith’s nose and his eyes widen. 

Keith jerks into sitting up pain rocketing through his system so fast he barely holds in the pained noises. “Are you guys cooking in my house? I don’t even own any pans yet! Or food for that matter.” He looked at the various different faces in the room all wearing different levels of shock on their faces as they look back at him. 

The female standing in the doorway is tall, muscular, with brown hair cut into a bob and brown eyes so light they almost look yellow in the light. “We brought our own. Since it was unknown how long we would be here tending to this one, we wanted to keep everyone in good health. It is ready to be eaten now.” 

“Thank you Shay, we’ll be right there.” Keith shifts his eyes to the voice, taking in the voice he’s linked to the name Shiro. He’s tall, one muscular arm pulling Lance up from the floor, his hair is long, pulled back into a bun and mostly black with a weird streak of white taking up most of what isn’t staying in the bun and instead falls into his face. He turns to give an unsure look in Keith’s direction, his gray eyes looking weird in the lighting. “You think you can eat? Hunk is a fantastic cook.” 

Keith swallowed the drool building in his mouth, ignoring the loud growl from his stomach. “Honestly? I feel like if I try to move again my body is going to explode.” 

Shiro nods, heading for the door, fingers laced with Lance’s pulling him along behind him. “I’ll bring you up a plate, you should try to eat. You’re going to need all the energy you can get.” Another man went out after them, tall brown hair pulled into a half ponytail and small oval glasses resting on his nose. 

“So, how do you feel?” Keith tried to move slowly to lessen the pain but it still felt agonizing so with a growl he grit his teeth and shifted so he was sitting draped over the arm of the couch, head on his arm turned to look at Pidge. “Well other than in pain.”

“Like I want to go to sleep and never wake up.” Keith mumbled into his arm.

“Well that is a likely occurrence. You’re actually the only human I’ve ever seen able to move after being infected, though I’ve never seen one actually turn, Matt said Shiro could barely do anything but breathe when he found him. He was barely able to move around until he changed a month later. Though Matt is the type to exaggerate things.” Pidge stood up off the floor with a stretch before sitting on the small coffee table. “So, do you want to talk options?” 

“If by talk you mean you tell me which one means I live and I agree to it then yes, lets talk.” Keith could feel the heaviness of exhaustion settling in. 

Pidge laughed. “Alright, well then. Matt saved Shiro by sucking the infection out of him. Easy enough to do, especially with the two of us to do it together, but you lost a lot of blood from that bite before Lance closed it up. Which means two things, you have less infection to suck up, which is great cuz it tastes terrible. And two, you’ll die without blood.” 

“So get blood. You sure sounded like you could earlier.” Keith’s eyes drifted closed, he fought them back open again. 

“Well obviously I can. I’d be dead otherwise. Just because we can eat human food from time to time doesn’t mean it can sustain us. Vampires need blood to survive. I can get blood to transfer real easy, I have a connection at the hospital.” Pidge looked proud, pushing the glasses up on their nose.

“Okay. Vampire. I just got attacked by a giant wolf and now I’m talking to a vampire. I can deal with this. Are all of you vampires?” 

Pidge laughed again, mouth wide flashing the fangs that make a lot more sense in Keith’s brain now. “Nope, our whole team has two vampires, a werelion, two witches, a minotaur, a faerie, and a sun elf! We also randomly work with a small pack of werewolves.” 

“Wait, aren’t the werewolves what attacked me?” 

“Yes and no. You see the Galra were once normal werewolves. But they began experimenting on themselves to become stronger, live longer, and with the help of a Drow Priestess they were able to do that, but in gaining power they lost their minds. They became vicious, feral, hungry. And began hunting anything living they could sink their teeth into. And whatever the Drow did to them made the feral nature highly contagious, its like one of those bad zombie apocalypse movies, one nip and people lose their minds and start ripping their own family apart.” 

Keith stared. “So am I going to start killing people?”

“If we’re unable to save you, then yes. If we can save you, you’ll… well, you’re not going to be human anymore. So you can kiss your old life goodbye.”

Keith laughed, then instantly regretted it as pain coursed through his body again. “That’s the whole reason why I moved here. Should have known, with my luck getting suddenly rich definitely came with bad side effects. Who knew it’d be getting bit by a mutated werewolf and my house invaded by a bunch of monsters.”

“Rude.” Pidge reached out a foot and poked him with their toe causing him let out a yelp of pain. “I’m here to save your life you know?” 

“Sorry…” 

Pidge grins. “S’all good. Go to sleep, stupid human Keith. I’ll get the blood. You just have to be stubborn enough not to die.”

Keith smiles weakly, eyes drifting closed. “Stubbornness is one of my best traits.”

“This doesn’t surprise me.” A blanket falls on his shoulders, Keith resists the urge to snuggle into it, his body too tired to really move. “Make sure you wake up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So much fantasy! But who is what? And will Keith survive??? Well lets hope so or this is going to be one short story. 
> 
> thanks for reading!


	3. Wild

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Keith! Wake up!!” A hand shaking his shoulder causes static of pain to shoot through his bloodstream causing him to try and jerk away, eyes flinging open with a gasp of pain. 
> 
> He pushed himself up into sitting, a crink of ache settling in on his neck and side. The movement hurt, but not nearly as bad as before. He took a slow breath, eyes still blurred with sleep as he moved slowly to rub at them with one hand. “M’wake.”

_“Its too dangerous.” They were speaking in whispers, probably trying in vain not to wake their sleeping child. Unfortunately for them, he never went to sleep. He almost drifted off, but as soon as his mother stopped humming he woke back up. So when he looked up and saw her gone, he intended to follow, because he wanted his mother to hold him close and sing to him, wanted her hair to pet his head in that nice comforting way she always did._

_“So you’re just going to leave? That’s your solution? Just take us with you, or we can go somewhere else. Somewhere where no one knows you.” His dad sounded upset. He didn’t like when people were upset. He should go make them smile! Nodding to himself he climbed out of his car-shaped bed, plush hippo in his arms as he padded to the door to his room._

_“There is no where where no one knows me. You know that. I’m sorry. I don’t want to do this any more than you want me to. But… I have to keep him safe… and if that means leaving him forever, then that’s what I’ll do.”_

“Keith.”

_“Just give it time, think about it. It could have been one random rogue!”_

“Keith? You okay?”

_“It wasn’t random, they knew, they were hunting. And they wanted him.”_

“Hey, Keith. Wake up.”

_“Then stay with us and help me protect him!”_

“Keith! Wake up!!” A hand shaking his shoulder causes static of pain to shoot through his bloodstream causing him to try and jerk away, eyes flinging open with a gasp of pain.

He pushed himself up into sitting, a crink of ache settling in on his neck and side. The movement hurt, but not nearly as bad as before. He took a slow breath, eyes still blurred with sleep as he moved slowly to rub at them with one hand. “M’wake.”

A soft chuckle comes from in front of him and a hand moves to his wrist slowly pushing his hand down. Once both hands are back in Keith’s lap a warm bowl is placed in them. Keith blinks slowly a few times until his eyes focus on the bowl and the thick, chunky, heavenly smelling soup within it. His stomach growled loudly, his mouth watering. Slowly he looked up into warm grey eyes and a gentle smile. “I promised I’d bring you food. I brought you some earlier but you wouldn’t wake up, so I had to reheat it. But I promise, it’ll still be the best soup you’ve ever had.”

Keith takes a tentative bite, chicken, rice, vegetable chunks that are huge and flavorful but easily tender enough to barely have to chew. It really was the best soup he ever had. He grinned and took another quick bite, and another, ignoring the throbbing in his limbs as he stuffed his cheeks full of delicious soup. Another chuckle from Shiro in front of him causes Keith to stop mid bite, spoon still in his mouth, and look up at him. “I’m pretty sure everyone has the same reaction to Hunk’s cooking. Don’t worry there’s plenty more. He made a giant pot and said it was only for you.”

Keith slowed down his eating, taking time to savor the flavors on his tongue as he looked around his living room. There was no one else in the room but him and Shiro. But he also didn’t see any boxes. He opened his mouth to ask where his stuff was when he saw his bookshelf set up in the corner. The books he owns organized on it’s shelves. “Did you unpack my stuff?”

Shiro scratches at his nose as he follows Keith’s line of sight. “Ah… yeah. Shay said she wanted to be useful while she was here and started pulling stuff out of boxes. Before we knew it we were all doing it. It passed the time, got our minds off…”

“Off me.” Keith finished for him, he nodded. “Why does it hurt less?”

Shiro smiled, pointing down to the arm Keith was using to hold the nearly empty bowl. Keith raised a brow and looked down, eyes widening when he saw the needle taped to his arm attached to a tube pumping what he assumed was blood into him. Keith took a moment to take in the needle before noticing his wrist was bandaged, upon further inspection he found his other wrist in the same state. “Did it… am I alive?”

A full out laugh came from Shiro this time, causing him to double over, arm over his stomach as his whole body shook. “You’re no ghost Keith. They can’t eat after all.” His eyes sparkled with unshed tears as he calmed his breathing to continue. “You’re not safe yet. The infection is still in you, but its less. Unfortunately the extraction makes Pidge and Matt very sick… which the best way to cure is well…” Shiro rolled his left sleeve up showing his own bandaged wrist.

Keith stared at the bandage. “Why?”

“Because blood of magical creatures is more powerful an-“

“No.” Keith cuts him off, setting his bowl between his legs. “Why are you guys doing all this for me?”

Shiro’s eyebrows knit together as he turned kind eyes up to meet Keith’s. “why wouldn’t we?”

“Because I’m just a stupid human. Dug my own grave. My whole life is shit, why bother saving it. I’m just a good for nothing lit-“

“That’s enough.” Shiro’s voice was firm, scolding. “I may not know you Keith, not yet. But no one isn’t worth saving. No life is not worth living. You’re going to live, and we’re going to help you until you don’t need us anymore.”

“How do you know I’ll survive.” Keith looks down at his soup. “I heard you guys talking. I should be dead already? Who’s to say I’ll survive. I’m not as healthy as you are, I’m just a scrawny brat from the city streets. I could barely keep a job let alone care about my health.”

“And yet here you are in this mansion of a house with its huge yard and no neighbors for miles.” Shiro raised an eyebrow.

Keith sighed. “I got lucky, as you can see all good luck comes with bad.” Keith sighed then chomped another bite, the carrot practically dissolving on his tongue.

“Mmm. Well, I think you’ll survive because you’re stubborn, strong, you lived through everything that’s come at you to get you here, so whats a little more? Besides, I smell the wild in you.” Shiro taps his nose. “If my hunch is correct, you’ll survive, for the same reason I did.”

“What reason is that?” Keith held his empty bowl out.

“Its in your blood.” Shiro stands up. “You should go back to sleep. It’s going to get worse before it gets better, unfortunately. Trust me, I know.”

Keith sighed, looking down at the needle in his arm, then at the couch. “Sure wish they’d at least unfold the bed…” grabbing his pillow he rolls over as best he can and curls up into it, drifting back to sleep. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mmm hopefully i keep up some good updates. But with pokemon coming out soon, i don't make any promises. But, i'll try.
> 
> Thank all of you for your wonderful comments, I really do appreciate them so-so much!


	4. Vicious Attack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith looks around for an escape as Lance’s grin grows and he moves slowly closer to the end of the couch were Keith is perched. “Don’t you dare.” Keith backs up more climbing up onto the back of the couch. “You wouldn’t attack an injured man.”
> 
> “Oh how wrong you are Keithy boy. Being injured just means you’re easier to catch.” Lance dives forward arms outstretched. Keith flings himself backwards tumbling from the back of the couch with a thud, his head connecting with hardwood flooring as his feet kick in the air.
> 
> “FUCK!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the hiatus!! Hopefully the next chapter won’t be so long a wait!

_“Daddy, why are we leaving? I just made friends here. Can’t we stay?” Keith looked up into his father’s brown eyes through the fog of unshed tears._

_His father smiled softly, kneeling down so he was closer to eye level with his son. “I’m sorry Keith. When you’re older you’ll understand. But for now, just know everything I do is for you.”_

“Hey.”

_“But Daddy… can’t we stop moving, for me? I’m so lonely. You don’t even let me have a phone, or a computer. I just want friends.” Keith can feel the tears escaping his eyes. He tries to stop them, scrubbing at his cheeks with his sleeves._

“Oy! Wake up already!”

_His dad’s smile looks sad as he wraps his arms around him. “I know Keith. I wish I could help you. I wish I could keep you safe another way. But, I can’t. I’m sorry Keith.”_

“Seriously? I should be getting paid for this. This boy is a full time job.” A poke to his cheek. “Wake up.”

_“Daddy, are you going to get hurt again?” Keith reaches up a small hand to touch the raw wound above his father’s eye. “I don’t like when you’re hurt.”_

“Come on man. Wake up already.” Another poke to his chest.

_“If it keeps you safe from harm I’ll get hurt as many times as it takes.”_

“Wake up!!” A poke to his side sends Keith jerking out of his dreams with a shriek, flinging himself away from the attack to his sensitive flesh. He pants, pressed against the arm of the couch staring wide eyed at the mischievous sparkle in the blue eyes in front of him. “Holy shit. You’re ticklish. Oh we are so getting our tickle on, right now, tickles are happening.”

Keith looks around for an escape as Lance’s grin grows and he moves slowly closer to the end of the couch were Keith is perched. “Don’t you dare.” Keith backs up more climbing up onto the back of the couch. “You wouldn’t attack an injured man.”

“Oh how wrong you are Keithy boy. Being injured just means you’re easier to catch.” Lance dives forward arms outstretched. Keith flings himself backwards tumbling from the back of the couch with a thud, his head connecting with hardwood flooring as his feet kick in the air.

“FUCK!” He grabs his head closing his eyes and hissing out air through his teeth.

“Keith? You okay?”

“No.”

“Good, cuz this battle isn’t over.” Keith’s eyes jerk open as a warm hand wraps around his ankle, fingers moving with barely-there touches across the bottom of his feet.

Keith flinches, tugs as his foot glaring up at Lance as he drapes himself over the couch. “Don’t you dare.”

“Hmm?” Lance’s head tilts, one eyebrow raising in mock confusion. “Don’t I dare what? Oh! You mean… this?” His fingers dig into the arch of the foot he has trapped in his grip causing a peal of laughter and even more flailing as Keith tries to escape. His arms scramble for purchase as he gasps and snorts. Finally he gets a grip on the corner of the couch and with as much strength as he can muster up around his laughter he pulls yanking on his foot as hard as he can pulling Lance half over the couch as he yanks himself around the side of it away from the attacking fingers.

As fast as he can Keith scrambles across the room before Lance can get ahold of him again. Gasping for air he glares over at the couch where Lance is still draped half over the back, ass in the air. “You are a terrible person.”

“Hey!” Lance’s voice came through as his feet kicked in the air. “I helped save your life you should show a little respect. I’m a hero.”

“You’re an idiot.” Deciding he’s currently safe from attack Keith flops onto the floor, looking up at the ceiling with vision spotted in black. He ignores it. “Did you just come in here to attack me while i’m sleeping?”

The feet were still kicking in the air, Lance’s body randomly moving like he was trying half-heartedly to get himself back up onto the couch. “No! I was sent to see how you’re doing. Pidge and Matt are super sick so they had to stop. And we ran out of blood to pump into you so we gotta wait for more anyway. We’ve been taking turns making sure you’re alive. Which you are, alive and moving. Look at you off the couch and across the room. You can thank me for that.”

Keith lets out an annoyed snort. “Yeah, right. Thanks for your vicious assault while I’m trying to recover from something that, according to all of you, should have killed me. I really appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome.” Giving up Lance slumps over sliding off the back of the couch onto the floor, he crawls across the floor to look down at Keith, sprawled starfish style in the middle of the room. “How’re you feeling?”

“Dizzy.” The spots still haven’t gone away, and they move along with his vision in a fuzzy dance across the room as he shifts his eyes to look at Lance. “My head hurts, and my lungs.” He closes his hands into a fist flinching when pain buzzes up his nerves. “And it still hurts to move.”

“Honestly, my whole body would hurt to move too if I was passed out on a couch for two weeks with very little movement.”Lance stands up slowly holding his hand out to Keith. “How about I help you get to your bed before they start poking and prodding at you again?”

“TWO WEEKS?” Keith pushes himself up into sitting, instantly regrets it and flops back down putting his hands over his eyes. He groans as his headache grows instantly more intense, his heartbeat pounding behind his closed eyes.

“You okay?”

“No, I’m dying… and hungry.”

Lance chuckles. “You already ate all your soup. Though you were barely coherent for most of it.” Keith feels a hand brush the hair away from his face before moving back behind his head slowly pulling him off the ground. Another hand moves down to loop under his knee and before he can protest he’s being lifted into the air with a loud groan from Lance. “God you ate too much soup. Why are you so heavy?”

“Muscle weighs more than fat.” Ignoring his inner protests at how humiliating this is for him Keith curls into himself counting the steps as Lance moves across the house. “Needed a lot of muscle, to keep safe.”

Lance is quiet as he moves down the hall stopping to fight with the doorknob before pushing the door open and carrying Keith into the only room that had a bed when they arrived. Carefully he placed him down on the bed, shifting slightly until his head was on the pillow and pulling the blanket over him. “You still awake?”

Keith peeks an eye open, turning to see half of Lance around the blur in his vision. “Do I have to be?”

Lance’s smile is soft as he chuckles standing up straight. “Nah, go to sleep Keith. Sorry I attacked you before you could fight back. Your reaction was cute and I got carried away.”

“Tickle me when I’m better and I’ll kick your ass.” Keith closes his eye again turning to snuggle into the pillow. Lance laughs as Keith drifts off, a subtle smile buried into the pillow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So true confession for all of you. This chapter took forever to get out because I got overwhelmed with everything I was doing. So I put this story on hold for a bit until I felt comfortable picking it up again. 
> 
> Thank you all for your patience in waiting and all your good comments! If you like this story I suggest popping over to read my other story “A Familiar Feeling” which is kinda like this one and has a lot more chapters up!


	5. Up and About

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If what Lance had said was true Keith hadn’t had a shower in WEEKS and even a homeless runaway deserves a good hot shower once in a while.
> 
> Turning on the water as hot as it could go he turned to look at himself in the mirror. His hair was a wreck, sticking out every which way in a nest of knots he knew he was going to hate getting out. He had on a way too big shirt that wasn’t his, it was a rusty orange color with Mufasa from The Lion King on it. He snorted pulling the shirt off and throwing it into a hamper he didn’t remember owning or filling with the dirty clothes that rested in it. With a shrug he shimmied out of his boxers and nearly bouncing with excitement got into the steamy shower.

_“Keith, I need you to run. Run away and don’t look back. Don’t come back. All the money we have is in your backpack. Use it to get away.” Keith’s dad pulled his son out of his bed shoving his backpack into his hands. “Quickly get your shoes on and climb out the window.”_

_“But dad, what about you?” Keith rubbed his eyes slipping his shoes on and strapping his backpack to his back._

_“Its too late for me Keith. I’m sorry. I know I promised to protect you… god what kind of father sends his son away at 15 to live on the streets?” He tried to pace but his movements faltered hand moving to clutch at his waist. “Keith, they’re going to find the bodies I left and they’re going to follow my blood here. You have to be gone before then. Go. Run now.”_

_Keith swallowed thick bile in his throat watching blood drip between his father’s fingers and nodded, he jumped out of the window skidding down the tree and into the wooded area behind the apartment building. Rustling leaves spooked him, an owl hooted in the distance. Nearby a murder of crows was singing to the rising sun. He ran and ran as fast as his feet could take him, fighting back the tears blurring his vision. When he reached the center of the wooded area he climbed up a massive tree, glowing white moonflowers vining up its trunk. Burrowing himself into a hole he’d found there during one of his explorations he held his breath._

_The owl no longer called._

_The crows no longer spoke of the sun._

_The woods were silent._

_A howl fills the air, followed by another, and another. Soon so many howls echoed off the trees Keith couldn’t keep track of them. He curled in further upon himself. A chorus of growls grew louder as bushes rustled and brush cracked. It got louder. Keith held his breath. Another growl, a loud bark, another, like the two were arguing. More sounds of movement._

_The sounds of gunshots filled the air, and then silence._

_Keith cried._

With a soft groan Keith opened his eyes blinking the blur out of his vision as he slowly pushed himself up. He glanced around the room finding some blankets and pillows on the floor, a glass of water with pain pills beside his bed, and no living creature in sight. For the first time he can remember since he moved here, Keith was alone.

He hated it.

With slow movements he pushed himself to the end of the bed, pushing himself to his feet. Determining himself safe from falling he smiled and stretched before going to the dresser. Sure enough his clothes were in there neatly folded like he never took the time to do. Smile turning soft he grabbed a pair of pants and underwear before walking as quietly as he could to the shower. If what Lance had said was true Keith hadn’t had a shower in WEEKS and even a homeless runaway deserves a good hot shower once in a while.

Turning on the water as hot as it could go he turned to look at himself in the mirror. His hair was a wreck, sticking out every which way in a nest of knots he knew he was going to hate getting out. He had on a way too big shirt that wasn’t his, it was a rusty orange color with Mufasa from The Lion King on it. He snorted pulling the shirt off and throwing it into a hamper he didn’t remember owning or filling with the dirty clothes that rested in it. With a shrug he shimmied out of his boxers and nearly bouncing with excitement got into the steamy shower.

The water burned his skin turning it pink, he didn’t care. Standing directly under the spray felt like heaven. After what felt like hours, but was really only five minutes, he reached an arm over to grab his shampoo, startled when his fingers hit more than one bottle sending a few of them clattering to his feet. Stepping out of the water he wiped his eyes before looking down at the bottles sitting sideways in the tub, then over at the ones on the shelf beside him.

His shampoo was buried in the back behind multiple bottles of body wash all in different scents with ridiculous names and bright colors. A couple bottles of shampoo and conditioner sat beside his own and a suction cupped hook stuck next to it all holding a blue and a purple sponge. He blinked again letting out a sigh as he crouched down picking up the fallen bottles. Curiosity getting the best of him he puts one on the shelf before popping the other open to smell it. It smelled like cake. Red velvet cake to be exact. Keith loved it.

Looking around for anyone watching he snatched up the blue sponge and poured the sweet smelling bodywash onto it. He didn’t actually know what part was better, washing away the grime from his body or smelling like cake as he did it. Once he finished washing his body for the third time he turned to the shampoos looking at them. His was just a basic 3 in 1 shampoo conditioner and bodywash in a “manly” scent he had no real desire for. So with a shrug he hung the sponge back up and picked through the options left to him. One was coconut scented with matching conditioner that promised to bring life and volume when used. The other was labeled ocean breeze and promised a silky shine. After sniffing both he decided on the coconut and four washes, and half a bottle of shampoo later, Keith felt clean. With a “why not” shrug he used the matching conditioner too before finally shutting off the slowly cooling water and climbing out.

Looking around he realized he never grabbed a towel. With a frown at the dirty towels in the bin, and no sign of a clean towel around him he sighed. Water was dripping down his face, shaking his head in annoyance he flung droplets of water everywhere. Grinning to himself he shook the rest of his body till his limbs hurt and his head felt dizzy. Yanking his underwear and sweatpants on over his still damp skin he looked around for a brush, only giving up when the closest he found was the purple and blue toothbrushes in a cup on his sink.

Contemplating how gross it would be he decided using their shower stuff was enough and brushed his teeth with their toothpaste and his finger. Satisfied and feeling much cleaner than he had in a long time he finally leaves the bathroom, leaving a trail of water behind as he walks through his room and into the hallway sniffing at his wrist with a pleased hum when he realizes he still smells like cake. Leaving a trail of wet footprints behind he moves down the steps and towards the kitchen following his nose towards an even better smell.

Walking through the door into the kitchen he stopped in the entryway watching as a man he’d yet to meet moved to a beat Keith could barely hear from the headphones pressed into his ears as he wiped down the counters. Licking his lips Keith stepped into the room fully trying to find the source of the sweet smell. Keeping a cautious eye on the man Keith rounded the counter eyes quickly settling on the top of the counter where four pies sat steaming, probably just removed from the oven. Sending another glance over at the man Keith snatched a fork from the drying rack next to the sink and shuffled closer to the pies. Taking a deep breath he nodded to himself and brought the fork towards the closest pie.

“You’re going to burn yourself.” Keith yelped, jumping and flinging the fork in the air. Whipping around wide eyes he stared into amused brown eyes. The man held the fork out to Keith with a smirk. “Keith right? I’m Hunk. It’s good to see you up and about, if you’re hungry I can grab you something that didn’t just come out of the oven.”

Swallowing down the guilt at being caught he nods slowly moving quickly around to sit at the other side of the counter watching as Hunk moved around his kitchen like he owned the place talking about something Keith couldn’t concentrate on. Hunk was a tall man with muscles that were barely hidden behind his thicker build, his hair was pushed back from his face with a orange band. His skin was even darker than Lance’s and a blue stone rested on his chest strung on with a simple piece of string that looked to be fraying in parts. Keith watched as he moved and he swore the stone was glowing.

A plate was pushed in front of him startling Keith out of his observation of the glowing rock to look sheepishly down at the piece of cherry pie topped with a scoop of ice cream. Glancing up at Hunk Keith grinned digging his fork into the food in front of him and taking a huge bite, groaning as it hit his tongue. “Oh my god.” Hunk bursts out laughing as Keith quickly takes another bite than another until there’s nothing left on the plate and he’s seriously contemplating licking it clean.

“More?” Still chuckling Hunk pulled the plate away turning to hopefully refill it. “It’s good you’re up and around. I know I was with Allura saying it was probably best to just put you out of your misery but now that you’re better I’m glad everyone listened to Lance. He can be a real bleeding heart sometimes, and he’s a sucker for a pretty face, but he just wants to save everyone.”

“You wanted to kill me?” Keith looked up into Hunk’s sheepish smile as he placed another plate in front of him.

“Sorry. I just didn’t think you’d make it. This isn’t the first time this has happened, we’ve had to kill more than one of our own teammates after they got infected by the Galra poison. It’s a hard war to fight out there, and getting attached to people causes more heartbreak than good.” Hunk sighed leaning on the counter and pushing the plate closer. “Don’t tell Shay I said that though. She’d be so mad at me.”

Frowning Keith cut off a piece of the pie chewing on it slowly while he watched Hunk start to fidget with the washcloth he was using earlier. “So tell me about this Galra, about you guys… and I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that part of the conversation.”

Hunk beamed his entire mood shifting to excitement as he grabbed a slice of pie for himself and flopped down in the seat next to Keith. “Okay! So where should I start? Like from the beginning or about us? Oh gosh I can’t believe no one else has told you about this, especially Lance. He’s quite bad at keeping his mouth shut around pretty pe-“

“Hunk!” Keith grins poking the larger man in the arm. “Just start with you and go from there… and please stop calling me pretty.”

“Right… most men don’t like being called pretty… gotcha okay!” Hunk took a huge bite of pie looking up at the ceiling before swallowing. “Alright! So, my name is Hunk, and I’m a minotaur.”

“I’m sorry stop there. You’re a what?” Keith put his fork down staring at the larger man beside him now.

“A minotaur! If I take this cool fancy necklace off I get super big and I got these HUGE horns. I could destroy this kitchen pretty easily without my crystal.” He took another bite ignoring Keith’s stare at the necklace and back up. “You see, when I was little, like… way too little to really remember. My people lived in a hidden village deep in the woods. We pretty much kept to ourselves, it’s a typical magical creature way really, our group is more of an odd group out amongst our people… anyway! Because no one communicated with one another my people didn’t know about the Galra. So when a ravenous pack of oversized werewolves came to our village we didn’t think anything of it and just killed them.”

“You make it sound so easy.”

“Well pitting a handful of wolves against a couple hundred bulls with giant axes and swords does seem a bit unfair for the wolves.” Hunk laughed again before setting his fork down on his plate and continuing. “Anyway, since no one talked to anyone, no one warned the minotaurs about the Galra. So about a week after they were all killed off the people who’d gotten bit by the wolves started going crazy. At first my people thought it was rabies and tried to treat it as such, but that just caused the infection to spread more. Within a month everyone was paranoid of everyone else and the minotaur were quickly killing each other off, infected or not.”

“Wow… so they just, killed anyone they didn’t trust?”

“Paranoia is a dangerous thing. Now my dad was a merchant, one of the few minotaur who talked to the outside world. So when he came home and saw the chaos his people were in he decided to save us. Contacting a group of witches he often worked with he made a deal with them to save his family. So the witches came to the outskirts of our village and my dad whisked us away in the night. A few people saw him leaving though, and being the paranoid people they were, they followed him. Upon seeing him with the witches they accused him of causing the Galra poison in our people and attacked. He sacrificed himself to make sure my mother and I got out.”

Keith looked down at his plate, moving a cherry back and forth with his fork. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I don’t remember him so it doesn’t really hurt me too much. And mom eventually got remarried to one of the witches that saved us. They opened a restaurant together once they figured out how to hide what mom and I are, and they’re happy together away from all this violence.” Hunk grinned taking another big bite of the pie before turning to Keith. “I met Lance through my witch mom. She’s his aunt, so I grew up with him as a cousin. He got me in a lot of trouble growing up, always too curious for his own good.”

“You’re a lot bigger than him, why didn’t you just say no?” Keith finally stabs the cherry with his fork and eats it.

“Lance can be very convincing when he wants to do something. He knows all my weaknesses!” Hunk flailed his arms in the air nearly toppling over his chair before settling down. “Anyways. We met Pidge during one of our… adventures. The people were whispering about vampires in the woods and Lance just HAD to go see them for himself! Sure enough there was a vampire, we stumbled on her inside a cave sucking at a bag of blood like a juice pack, hair cut short and sticking out every direction, and drawing all over the walls in chalk. She had so many weird things written and drawn all connected together with bits of yarn we honestly thought she was a human hunting for bigfoot!”

Keith realizes his ice cream is melting and starts stuffing bites of pie into his mouth talking around the food stuffed in his cheeks. “So what was she doing?”

“Looking for Matt. He’d gone to town a few months back to get something, I don’t even remember what, but he never came home! So Pidge hacked off all her hair and started going by Pidge to escape anyone searching for her and went looking for him. Now obviously being the smart one I wanted to turn tail and run back home to my happy family and our peaceful life. But, Lance always loved a good adventure.. and I couldn’t just leave him all alone! So we decided to help Pidge out.”

“How’d you find Matt?” Keith looked down at his empty plate when his fork scraped against it.

“Actually, Matt found us. We were a few states away from home staying the night with a friendly group of witches who lived deep in the caves and valleys of the earth. That’s where we met Shay, by the way, she’s the one that found us huddled in a cave and brought us down to rest with her family. Matt got brought in there barely alive with Galra poison filling his entire body, and Shiro nearly drained of blood somehow still trying to protect him. After laying eyes on Pidge Shiro just passed out, lack of blood and exhaustion getting to him. It took a lot to bring Matt back from all that poison in his blood, Shiro was actually up before him. The earth witches knew what was happening to him before any of us did. Though they were surprised when he turned into a lion. Apparently they were thought to be extinct.” Hunk chuckled watching Keith licking the cherry off his plate.

Keith blushed at being caught and set the licked clean plate back on the counter. He clears his throat and runs a hand through his still dripping hair. “So how did you guys get into fighting the Gal-“

“Hey Lance! I didn’t expect you to be back so soon, do you want to go for a wa…lk.” Shiro walks into the kitchen looking around, his brows knit together in confusion. “I thought I smelled Lance.”

Hunk chuckles nodding his head towards Keith who bounced in his chair eyes wide with barely contained excitement. “Pretty sure its Keith you smell. He smells like both of you to me.”

“Can I go for a walk?” Keith’s eyes practically sparkle as he looks up at Shiro.

Blinking down at Keith Shiro takes in his soggy appearance and gives a soft smile. “You took a shower.”

“Yes, now I smell good. Can I go for a walk.”

“I don’t know if it’s a good idea for yo- please don’t look at me like that.” Shiro frowned at Keith as he looked up at him wide eyed and pouting. “Seriously, you’re still recovering you shouldn’t be out of the- for the love of god stop with the puppy dog eyes!”

Keith continued to pout up at Shiro, now that he knows he’s doing it he lays it on thick. “But, if you’re with me you can keep me from overdoing it.”

Shiro swallows hard trying to look away but his eyes keep glancing back. With a loud sigh his shoulders drop. “Fine. We can go for a walk. Go put some clothes and shoes on.”

Keith grins jumping up and rushing for the door. He hears Hunk behind him laughing as the door shuts. “I can’t wait to tell Lance you fell for Keith’s puppy dog eyes.”

“Please don’t Hunk. I don’t need them getting together to work against me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I really like the idea that were creatures get tendencies like their animal counterparts. So I decided to have a bit of fun with this idea. I hope you guys liked it!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Your comments and Kudos fuel me! If you'd like to ask any questions (and ensure you get an immediate response) feel free to hit me up on my tumblr sharing the name i hold here: SuccubustyKisses


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